Comcast announces plans to roll out gigabit internet by the end of the year

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The various established telcos and cable operators have been under pressure ever since Google announced it would begin rolling out fiber networks to consumers in test locations across the country. Now, Comcast is gearing up to fight back with its own next-gen standard support and a promise of 1Gbps performance delivered over a cable modem.

These speed jumps come courtesy of improvements to the DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) standard. Currently, DOCSIS 3.0 is deployed across much of the US and Europe, but the new technology Comcast is going to deploy is based on Broadcom’s BCM3390 cable modem SoC, and that chip adds support for DOCSIS 3.1.

Expected performance from DOCSIS 3.1 (EuroDOCSIS is the European version but has similar specs)

DOCSIS 3.1 is designed to allow cable modems to hit performance targets that were previously only possible with fiber networks through the use of 4096 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) and other steps that improve signal efficiency and transmission quality.

When Broadcom announced its BCM3390 at CES 2015, Comcast’s executive vice-president, Tony Werner said, “DOCSIS 3.1 is a critical technology for Comcast to provide even faster, more reliable data speeds and features such as IP video to our subscribers’ homes by harnessing more spectrum in the downstream. By more effectively using our cable plant to grow our total throughput, we expect to offer our customers more than 1 Gigabit speeds in their homes in 2015 and beyond.” What’s a tad disingenuous about Comcast’s position is that the current DOCSIS 3.0 standard is fully capable of gigabit transmission already, albeit not very efficiently. Still, the capability is there. and Comcast hasn’t previously deployed it — most likely because rolling out new DOCSIS 3.1 modems is also an opportunity to drive up modem rental fees for the new hardware and to drag out the upgrade process.

Pricing and rollout availability are both still to be determined, but we’d expect the company to target those cities which Google selects for its own fiber rollouts. AT&T has also promised to build out high-speed connections to 100 cities in the near future — it’s amazing how fast companies respond to perceived competitive pressures when competition actually exists in a market.

Broadcom expects to sample the BCM 3390 modem in the first part of the year with modem availability coming in the back half of 2015. In addition to providing for efficient gigabit fiber networks, the new modems will also offer two gigabit WiFi performance in the home, potentially opening the door for wireless 4K streaming within the home provided that there’s a clear line of sight between router and television.

Tagged In

Get on the Extreme speed package. I’m sure people on that will get a good boost.

Stacey Bright

Only a limb, your soul, and/or your first born. Which ever has greater personal value.

Glenn Scott

500Mb=arm
750Mb=leg
1Gb=arm&leg

MisterBlat

I hear the left nut is also an option for the 1Gb rate…

Hermione Granger

i heard pulling out your nose hair will give you the 2gb option.

Guest

Considering “Extreme 505” is 505/100Mb (63.125/12.5MB) and priced at $400. This could be “Ultra 1010” at 1010/200Mb (126.25/25MB) and priced at $800, so any arm and leg indeed. Also did not mention the other fees that 505 have now. So no, I would not recommend this, Google Fiber is 1000/1000 without data caps is best. 1010/200Mb (126.25/25MB) vs 1000/1000Mb (125/125MB), is best expected; and NO, an extra “phantom” 10Mb is not worth all the crap behind it considering your just paying for something your not getting anyway unlike Google Fiber.

qubit86

So when the news laments about the economy, is it really about the decline of OPEC and dominant ISPs?

Chris

Correct. Extreme 505 is 400/month and minimum 3 year commitment and large early termination fee if you say move. Plus is 250 in setup fees (no you can waive that even though in most cases they simply test your connection in 5 minutes and then call it a day), and 250 activation fees which you also can’t waive even though its the same activation process. But if you need the speed, they are the best option sadly.

Zunalter

$1 less than Google Fiber

Brian Benghazi Piper

There are still people with NO access to 128k dsl…….. and this is in America

my Docis 3.0 SB6121 modem goes to 160Mbps. That will be plenty for ethernet streaming 4k. Basically 18.6MB/sec, plenty enough for maybe even 8k streaming. Having good Flash or VP9, however, as a gpu accelerated codec, is more important. I can stream at 60Mbps 4k fast enough, and my GPU and CPu is capable of 4k, but it’s best to run video files natively from the disk rather than a bloated browser, including chrome at the moment. The SB6141, is basically capable of 37.2MB/s. at 320Mbps, we won’t need Gigabit speeds unless everyone streams at that speed for something like 4k in 3D or something-240hz.

It’s not Netflix’s problem. Netflix offers a local caching server free of charge to all major ISPs, a caching server which would hold the most popular 70% of their content, severely reducing the burden of Netflix traffic coming from outside the ISP’s network. Comcast refused this server, for absolutely no reason whatsoever other than “We didn’t spend years buying all our competition, lobbying to make municipal networks illegal, and establishing monopolistic dominance, just so some two-bit internet company could show up and steal all our customers!”.

qubit86

It’s relief to know this now. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will stop the 30% of bratty Netflix customers who complain of the slow speeds from the long tail of independent films that are not cached. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_tail Usually a minority is the most vocal. Hopefully it’s not the same people writing technology articles about Netflix streaming woes. Edit: Ok, I was being a bit snarky. Sorry.

Joel Detrow

It wouldn’t even be 30% of Netflix customers, and it would be far less than 30% of overall Netflix bandwidth. That 70% caching server would reduce Netflix-related interconnect costs for Comcast by well over 90%, meaning literally everyone watching Netflix would have no problems. Comcast literally sabotaged their own network in order to sabotage their competition.

Tony

im on 105 i get no lag

Zunalter

Sorry, it was tongue in cheek about the dismal Netflix performance on Comcast that prompted their negotiations last year or the year before

pdcjlw1

1 gigbit? how about helping some of us that pay through the nose for 1 megbit. That would be nice.

Mirimon

tape, this is just tape… their tech is limited by a maximum potential capacity some 74,000 times lower than fiber….they really aren’t investing in this as much as milking it.

delpillar

In Japan, one CATV/MSO company, can only offer 160 Mbps DOCSIS 3.0 service. Although that MSO has plan up to 320 Mbps DOCSIS 3.0 in the future, NTT and other Fiber Optic Companies are poaching subscribers by offering 1 Gbps at 60 US Dollars per month.

What the Japan’s MSO did to fight against Telco’s FTTH poaching activities?

Well, 2 Gbps FTTH based on GPON at 40 US DOllars per month:

Kevin Moore

I’m guessing $175/mo + $15/mo modem rental (with baloney excuse for why it only works with their modem) and only accessible in major markets

Tony

they told me 150 cost 170.00 then 200. 00 fee to monitor the 150 speed. im sure 1gb will cost more than that. 150 speed not even in my area so not sure why first tech told me its in my area.

Ryan

You can paint a turd, but it’s still a turd. Any service through Comcast is still Comcast. I’ll stick with my 60/mo Gigabit through EPB FIBER OPTICS.

oggelbe

Don’t believe anything these entrenched clowns spue. We are a third rate country in this category and likely to stay that way…

Kyle

Google seems to be lighting a fire under their caches.(Not sure about this website’s policy towards curse words.) Sic ’em Google.

Vampnet

They should offer it for free.. full access for one low price.. Would go towards boosting customer happiness @ Comcast. I have 100mb now and spend under 70. So getting 1000mb would certainly be an upgrade.

GForce

This crap doesn’t do any good. I have a 300GB bandwidth cap where I live.

mkanet

Only whiny Comcast customers could find reasons to complain about getting a Gigabit Internet option. Unbelievable.

Eric Nyamu

atleast those people with 3mbps dsl service should be getting 20+mbps now

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